£18m homes from home for Woodward

Labour MP Shaun Woodward's property portfolio has burgeoned with the purchase of four flats in London.

The 43-year-old, who left the Conservatives for Labour two years ago, spent £4.5 million on the flats and now boasts a tally of seven properties said to be worth at least £18 million.

His new purchases are said to include a £3.2 million penthouse in the Parliament View development overlooking the House of Commons, a £273,000 flat in the same block, and two £500,000 flats in the up-and-coming London Bridge area.

The member for St Helens, who is married to Camilla, heir to a £100 million of the Sainsbury supermarket fortune, also owns an £8 million Oxfordshire mansion, a terraced home in his constituency, and a £6 million house in Queen Anne's Gate, which is on the market.

The Queen Anne's Gate property was used by the MP's close friend and fellow property enthusiast Peter Mandelson and his Brazilian friend Reinaldo da Silva, before this year's election.

His constituency home, in a run-down terrace, cost £57,000 but is being improved with a £70,000 extension.

According to the report Mr Woodward, one of the few MPs to boast his own butler, said he was not planning to rent out any of his properties, saying: "These homes are all for the private use of my family and they are our private business.

"We are selling our house in Queen Anne's Gate and it is nobody's business where we choose to live now."

The revelations about the socialist's burgeoning property empire are expected to upset those he represents in the largely working class Merseyside constituency, where there is already anger at his lavish lifestyle and the amount of time he spends at his homes in the South.

Labour party colleagues boast large property portfolios of their own.

Environment minister Michael Meacher, who has an estimated 10 homes, and former Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson, who owns at least five.